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Fantasia in G major 'Pièce d'orgue', BWV572

Recordings

CDD220622CDs Dyad (2 for the price of 1) — Last few CD copies remaining

'Herrick's musical inspiration, matched by his technique, does full justice to this pinnacle of the organ repertoire' (BBC Music Magazine Top 1000 CDs ...'Yet another yardstick release from what seems to be an unbeatable team … I suspect I have already found my record of the year' (Gramophone)» More

In 1931 the pianist and muse Harriet Cohen invited all her principal composer friends each to make an arrangement of a work by J S Bach for inclusion in an album to be published by Oxford University Press. Published as A Bach Book for Harriet Cohe ...» More

'Let me say without hesitation that Herrick’s performances are models of clarity, accuracy, precision and musicality … this is a complete Bach th ...'Herrick is one of the few organists who does justice to these difficult, elusive pieces … What a singular joy to hear the organ played with such ...» More

Christmas 1927; dedicated For Tania (Bax's pet name for Harriet Cohen); first published by Oxford University Press in A Bach Book for Harriet Cohen; first performed at the Queen's Hall on 17 October 1932

Most of the participants to the Bach Book for Harriet Cohen selected relatively short pieces, with chorales the clear favourite among Bachian genres. But the book contains two weightier items, the first of them by Harriet Cohen’s lover, Arnold Bax. Bax was the only composer who chose to arrange a secular organ work—the middle section of the Fantasia in G major BWV572—and all the evidence suggests that this was a free-standing transcription created before the idea of the Bach Book had even been born. The manuscript is dated ‘Xmas 1927’ and dedicated ‘For Tania’ (Bax’s pet name for Harriet Cohen), rather than the ‘For Harriet Cohen’ that appears in the Bach Book, so presumably it was in fact intended as a Christmas present: possibly its existence helped to crystallize the idea of the Bach Book in Harriet’s mind.

Unlike the other contributors (save one), Bax had no compunction about writing on three staves to accommodate the musical text, and this gives his pages a more organ-like appearance and a more orchestral effect. After a grand, majestic opening the Fantasia proceeds in more even, flowing polyphony, but the textural density, with internal trills and ornaments, is reminiscent of Bax’s own piano sonatas. The grandiose conclusion, which like several other passages appears literally unplayable, certainly pulls out all the stops, as it were.